Healthy lifestyle habits may help prevent new-onset IBS

Adherence to healthy lifestyle behaviors is significantly associated with lower incidence of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a large population-based cohort study showed.

At an average follow-up of 12.6 years, one, two, three to five healthy lifestyle behaviors (non-smoking, optimal sleep, high levels of vigorous physical activity, quality diet, and moderate alcohol consumption) were observed. compliance was significantly higher. is associated with a lower incidence of IBS, even after adjusting for potential confounders (P(trend <0.001), Dr. Irene Xinying Wu of Central South University in Hunan Province, China, and colleagues report:

• One behavior: adjusted HR 0.79 (95% CI 0.65-0.96)
• Two behaviors: aHR 0.64 (95% CI 0.53-0.78)
• 3-5 behaviors: aHR 0.58 (95% CI 0.46-0.72)

When each of the five lifestyle behaviors was analyzed separately, non-smoking (aHR 0.86, 95% CI 0.76-0.98; P=0.02), high levels of vigorous physical activity (aHR 0.83, 95% CI 0.73-0.95, P=0.006), optimal sleep (aHR 0.73, 95% CI 0.60-0.88, P=0.001) showed a significant independent inverse association with IBS incidence. intestine.

For healthy eating, no significant independent association was observed (aHR 0.89, 95% CI 0.77-1.04; P=0.13) and moderate alcohol intake (aHR 0.89, 95% CI 0.76-1.04; P=0.14), although the effect size approached statistical significance.

“To prevent IBS, primary care providers, who are often the first point of contact for patients in the health care system, need to be proactive in implementing appropriate interventions to change health behaviors during routine care. It is important to play a key role in this,” Wu et al. the authors concluded.

said Maitreyi Raman, MD, of the University of Calgary, Canada. today's med page “This was an excellent and novel study, as it aimed to identify protective factors against the development of new irritable bowel syndrome. For prevention, moderate to vigorous physical activity, quality You want to emphasize high sleep, quality food, ideally a Mediterranean diet' pattern, and low intake of ultra-processed foods. ”

In sensitivity analyses, only complete abstinence from alcohol was defined as a healthy drinking behavior, and healthy levels of physical activity were defined more moderately as at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week, or at least 75 minutes per week. defined as vigorous physical activity. , showed better performance than moderate-intensity exercise, the researchers explained. “The benefits of exercise, such as reducing intestinal inflammation and modulating the gut microbiome, may explain the underlying mechanism of exercise's effect on reducing the risk of IBS.”

They added that the causal role of smoking in IBS is a subject of debate. This may be due to a delay in “food emptying from the stomach and transit time from the mouth to the cecum,” but it may also reflect baseline anxiety or depression, and therefore “mental health.” It may serve as a proxy for mental health status and mediate the association between mental health conditions,” and risk for IBS. ”

Research linking anxiety, depression, and general mental health comorbidities to new-onset irritable bowel syndrome is well established, Raman said. “Improving the gut-brain connection can be achieved through interventions such as yoga, breathing exercises, mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy, and gut hypnotherapy. Similarly, physical activity can improve mental health comorbidities and can reduce the incidence of

In this study, Wu et al. 64,268 adults aged 37 to 73 years from the UK Biobank who did not have IBS at baseline and were enrolled from 2006 to 2010 and followed until 2022 ( (mean age 55.9 years, 55% female) was used. Participants completed at least two 24-hour dietary recall questionnaires (including an alcohol consumption assessment). The incidence of IBS was recorded at 1.5%.

Researchers assessed participants' baseline health and lifestyle using patient-filled questionnaires, physical exams and biological samples at one of 22 assessment centers across the UK. did.

At baseline, 11.8% of participants reported none of the five healthy lifestyle behaviors, 32.1% reported one behavior, 34.1% reported two behaviors, and 21.9% reported three to five. I have reported the action.

Compared to participants who did not engage in any of the five healthy lifestyle behaviors, participants who adhered to three to five behaviors were younger, female, had a lower BMI, were married, and were less employed. are more likely to have been or are self-employed, and less likely to have a family history of IBS. They also had lower prevalence of depression, anxiety, back and joint pain, headaches, asthma, and gastrointestinal infections.

Wu and his team note study limitations include the exclusion of a large proportion of participants due to limited responses to a web-based digestive health tracking questionnaire and the lack of subjective self-reported data. noted potential discrepancies between sleep and objective sleep measurements.